John Robert ( Bob ) Brant was born in Shelbyville in 1911.  He attended school only to the eighth grade.  He served in the U.S. Navy, was a photographer for the Shelbyville Democrat, and then became a fireman with the Shelbyville Fire Department.  He married Helen Smith in 1939, and they had two children; John and Anne.   Helen was a registered nurse, and she died in 1967 at the age of 57.

 During his off days with the fire department, Bob  pursued his love of photography, and did legal and aerial work as well as many other projects.  He was very interested in Shelby County history and had a large collection of photos taken by him as well as those he obtained from others.  He also photographed numerous school groups and organizations over the years.  Though not formally educated beyond the eighth grade, he was an avid reader and a collector of books.  He also had a large gun collection, and taught many local women to shoot, as well as gun safety.  When he retired from the fire department he became a special police officer with the Shelbyville Police Department and spent many hours riding with police officers.  Bob was a devoted grandfather to his four grandchildren ( John had two daughters and Anne had two sons), and was happy he lived to see all four of them graduate from college.  Bob Brant died May 26, 1997 and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery .

Anne (Brant) Hoyt provided this background of her father.
Anne graduated in 1962 and now lives in Michigan.

SC Alumni was very fortunate to have met Bob Gordon.  Bob Gordon and Bob Brant had been friends for years.  Mr. Gordon, with Ann Brant's permission, saved most of the negatives and photos from Mr. Brant's photography's business. After he saw the SC Alumni web site, he mailed me over four hundred negatives taken for the 1961 Squib. I converted all 430 negatives to digital so they could be shared with you